FINALLY found a samurai yesterday.  Been looking for one off and on for the last 10 years ever since my friends dad bought an LJ80 and we ran the wheels off of it. Unfortunately, mine isnt quite that old.  I picked up an '87 JX in fairly good shape body wise.  It runs and drives okay, but I've got some questions:

Engine.  I know its only a 1.3 L motor, but this thing feels REALLY anemic.  I think my friends LJ80 with the .8 L motor would put it to shame.  I havent pulled compression on it yet but it doesnt burn any oil and seems to run great other than a pretty bad sputter the first time you start it up in the morning.  Runs kinda rough and has a tough time making it over 2500 rpm for the first minute or two of running, then it clears up and runs good, but has a hard time holding 55 mph on the flat.  I replaced the cap, rotor, wires, and plugs this evening as the rotor and cap had some nasty deposits inside, and we'll see if it helps in the morning.  what else should I look for?  carb?

Transmission.  Has a pretty good bearing noise in 1st, 3rd, and 5th. none in 2, 4, or Reverse.  5 is the noisiest and 1st you can hardly hear it.  checked the oil level and it took probably about 1/3rd of a quart to get it up to level.  Noise went down a bit but its still there. 

SO, Run it the way it is, rebuild, or solve both problems by upgrading to a 1.6 motor and tranny?

It has a couple other items that need attending too as well.  PO claims it has 75k origanal miles (bull...), that the motor was rebuilt at 50k miles(bull again...), and that it was a tow rig owned by a millionare.  I'm probably going to do all the u-joints, wheel bearings, and steering joints as the wheel is pretty loosey-goosey.  anything else i should check on this run down little sammy?

(p.s.- her name is Senzy.  Long story.)

Thanks all!

When I bought mine the engine wouldn't hold 55mph stock. When that engine overheated my dad decided to rebuilt it. When it threw a bearing the first 100 miles I ended up getting one from a junkyard.  That one would pull 65-70 on 36" inch tires geared of course.

I used the same intake, carb and exhaust so I would say the engine was getting wore out and maybe same with yours.

If you do decide to rebuild then maybe you would be better off going for the 8v or 16v.
There are so many options there that I will leave that alone.

Are you running stock tires and all?

its pretty much stock.  the tires look a little bigger than stock, not sure what they are.  i'll have to check in the morning...

its pretty much stock.  the tires look a little bigger than stock, not sure what they are.  i'll have to check in the morning...

Nice looking sammie

yeah, now if it only ran as good as it looked!  So the cap/rotor/wires/plugs didnt cure the cold sputter.  It almost acts like its missing on a cylinder until it warms up.  guess i'll do some more poking around tommorow.

compression test might be a good thing to look into.


Amilla

 Check #4 cly first, I'll bet its lower then the rest..  Does It have a cat on it yet?

my sammy hated the cold too would cough and splutter till it was warm then  compleatly different ran fine